Distinguished Lecture: Trust but Verify: The Role of Cognitive Skills & the Media Environment

Dr. Pippa Norris Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University When citizens trust or mistrust government actors, under what circumstances do they make rational or erroneous judgments? Dr. Pippa Norris will present a recent study (co-led by researchers from the University of Southampton and Canberra University) that focuses on several factors that potentially explain such errors, including a lack of cognitive capacity at an individual level and limits to the information environment, measured by macro-level indices of press freedom and mass communications in societies. This work draws on new cross-national time-series data from over 40 diverse societies contained in the World Values Surveys/European Values Surveys to explore how far—and under what conditions—subjective perceptions of institutional trust are related to the trustworthiness of national governments. Conclusions and implications will be discussed.